Minimum Use by date??

Nick@D

Hi,
I have purchase a box of 24 torq energy bars from wiggle & the use by date is only just over a month, there was no notification or discount reference a limited shelf life, what is the norm for this type of product? i would have expected 3 to 6 months as a minimum.

any thoughts?

Thanks

Nick D

fish156

I'd say your expectations are reasonable - I'd definitely complain if I'd paid full price for them.

esspeebee

Thoughts? Mainly that the use by dates on that sort of thing don't mean much.

Frank the tank

I'd have thought polishing 24 bars off in a month wouldn't be too difficult.

Anyway stick another month on the use by date, they're not dairy are they.

Fish156 makes a valid point though.

Nick@D

Hi Frank T T: i am sure i will polish them off in just over a week, going for JOGLE, however not due to set out until after the sell by date

Hi ESSPEEBEE: i don't disagree, but my principles get in the way:)

Hi Fish 156: i think the fact it was not advised on purchase so i could to make a informed choice is not fair.

Thanks for your input, i will have to see where i go from here, i see it the same a buying a new bike with used tyres, eg: shortened life span

Cheers

secretsqizz

Best before's are a food industry scam
Use by's... arent

TheStone

I'd email them. 1 months is fairly unreasonable and I doubt they'd deliberately sell at full price that close to the date.
If I bought a box of stuff like that, I'd expect it to still be good at the end of the summer.

(although not sure if Torq stuff is a bit more natural, so maybe doesn't last as long as other bars)

Frank the tank

secretsqizz wrote:

Best before's are a food industry scam
Use by's... arent

I appreciate that but I'm sure that (unless it's meat or dairy) you'd be safe to eat it.

The comparison I'd draw is the one with SWL if the SWL is 1,000kg it could comfortably lift 3,000kg it's just airing on the side of caution.

Nick@D

the only down side with SWL comparison, you don't want to drop anything on your foot & then ask mr insurance man for some money but i know what you mean as in over kill on the date. i have eaten many things from around the world (deep fried tranchula, probaly the most strange & tasty) but if it has a date on, i should have been made aware of the limited time that is it really, no big shakes, i will exchange them for one nearer my requirement date .

Gizmodo

Distance selling regulations say that if you want to return any product sold over the Internet or phone you can do so as long as you return it within 2 weeks, you don't need a reason. So if you are really unhappy you can return them.

But I would email them and ask them to check their stock, that might be normal for that product or it might be an old batch and they haven't realised.

Nick@D

thanks for that Gizmodo, i will also ask torq what there suggested shelf life is

nferrar

Yeah one month is definitely not right, most gels I order have at least 6 months date on them, I'd be sending them back...

jgsi

I have still got a box full of Viper gels that I got short dated last year for 20% of retail price...... I had one on a reliability ride this Sunday..
went down 1 pothole, rear brake bound,
went down another pothole, front brake bound,
got dropped and slightly lost
lonely ride home in the cold and miserable wet.
yesterday my itb was a bit tight..

I'm throwing those gels out....................

(not really)

Yossie

Is this a serious question like?

Just eat them as and when - its not a lump of cheese.

If you actually look at them, I doubt that there is anything in the ingredients to go off.

They'll be fine in 6 months.

Best before etc are just a statutory regulation: everything has to have have one - check your bottle of water in the cupboard: its got a use by date, however I don't remember seeing sealed bottles of water going off. Cans of pop are the same.

Wiggle probably didn't even notice: they probably have a warehouse with 500 boxes of these in there, the guy saw your order, went in, took box off shelf, put in box to send to you. They will change them for you but I personally wouldn't go through the faff of sending them back.

Zingzang

Yossie wrote:

Is this a serious question like?

Just eat them as and when - its not a lump of cheese.

If you actually look at them, I doubt that there is anything in the ingredients to go off.

They'll be fine in 6 months.

You would not speak with such confidence if you had seen a whole box of in-date Torq bars (mango flavour) that had gone off. In a box I bought last year (from Wiggle, alas) a kind of blue mould had penetrated the supposedly sealed wrappers of half the bars and run rampant. The affected bars were not just inedible but a health hazard. Humans are not the only organisms that like consuming fructose.

Gizmodo

I don't normally pay much attention to BB dates, but 2 weeks ago I opened a box of MrKipplings Choc Chip bars - little cakes individually wrapped and sealed.

I ate mine down whilst my wife examined hers. After I had swallowed she pointed out the white fur growing on all of the bars. I thought it tasted a bit funny, the BB date was just before Christmas. :shock: Ah well, I'm still here so it can't have been that bad.

Nick@D

Hi All,

FYI, i contacted Torq referance to purchase life on there products & an Anthony Roland responded very quickly & helpfully with the details below

Hi Nick
As a good guide go for:
2 years on the TORQ Gels and Energy drinks.
1 1/2 years on the TORQ Recovery drink
1 year on the TORQ Bars
Hope that helps!
Regards,
Anthony

have had no respond from wiggle as yet. i will keep you posted.

that is a interesting comment ZingZang with regards to the other bars from wiggle, is the norm & people roll over??

Hi Yossie, you are probably right with the 500 boxes in the warehouse, however i would expect better stock management, or a least notification before purchase on the limited shelf life. with the referance to the water & the sell by date, your right the water does not go off but the container eg: plastic bottle, goes past it's date & starts to "breakdown" thus contaminating the water inside, that is why there is one on water.

Cheers

Nick D

alanp23

Congrats, OP. You've just sent me scurrying to the cupboard.... I bought a couple of boxes about this time last year and have just been working my way through them without really thinking about use by dates. :shock:

Dated 24th April 2012. Perfect.

To be fair, I'd expect a lot longer than a month unless they were being sold cheap.

manglier

Gizmodo wrote:

Distance selling regulations say that if you want to return any product sold over the Internet or phone you can do so as long as you return it within 2 weeks, you don't need a reason. So if you are really unhappy you can return them.

But I would email them and ask them to check their stock, that might be normal for that product or it might be an old batch and they haven't realised.

7 days from date of receipt for DSR Gizmodo.
Manglier

crossborderreiver

Wiggle are currently advertising power bars amongst their clearance items. It clearly states the use by date is the end of March.

Coach H

Having shared an office (in a past job) in a food factory with the food technologists who ran the in-house mircobiological lab I will never again consume stuff past the 'Use by'. It cost money to throw things away early so the food industry runs these dates as late as they possibly can. I've seen the culture dishes and its not pretty. Worst in my experience is washed, bagged salad. Even the food techs who taste mouldy stuff for a living steer away from bagged salad!!!

If there was nothing to go off in the product it would have a best before date without doubt. Best before either means it may not taste quite as fresh but will do you no harm or means they have had to put a date on just because.... well they have to. As a previous poster has said water may have fallen out of the sky 50 years before it has made it into a bottle but will still have a best before date!

If you do have stuff after the use by date it does not mean you will definatelly be ill, it just means that it is statistically likely that there enough microbes in the product to make it statistically likely you will be ill.

CiB

Quite, but from experience we all know that salad bought at the end of the day is likely to be a fit flaccid & unpleasant, whereas - what? squash (for example) can go for ages. It's about being aware.

Anyone hear on the news the other day about a bag of coal having a use-by date? Best suggestion from a listener was the advice to just burn it if it's out of date.

beverick

Gizmodo wrote:

Distance selling regulations say that if you want to return any product sold over the Internet or phone you can do so as long as you return it within 2 weeks, you don't need a reason.

7 days after the date of receipt for goods.

Unless foodstuff's are different to other goods - and I don't think they are.

Bob

Nick@D

Just an update,

I had a email from wiggle, apologizing for the mistake with the short shelf life & they have said they are checking there stock to remove anymore with such a short life, by the looks of crossboarderreiver comment above, it looks like it is in progression already. Also in fairness to wiggle they reimbursed 50% of the price that is fair & that is really all i was after.

Thanks

Nick D

beverick

We stopped getting our groceries on line a couple of years ago when we found that the majority of perishable items had "short" use-by dates. The final straw was when we received 12 yoghurts, four pints of milk, two packs of butter and a pack of bacon with either use-by or sell by dates either one or two days in the future.

I took them back only to be told that as long as the goods were "in-date" at the time of delivery they had no obligation to exchange them.

Bob

schweiz

I bought a load of yoghurts a week or so before Christmas with use by dates of 7th January. We went on holiday for 3 weeks on 1st Jan and when I came back I ate the 5 or six remaining yoghurts over the following week. They looked normal, they tasted normal and I wasn't ill!

UK military ration packs used to have 'chocolate coated caramels' in them. They were Rolos and I ate some in 1995 that had been made by Rowntree Mackintosh long before Nestlé had taken them over in 1988. The chocholate was a bit white where the sugar had come to the surface but again no ill effects. It's also interesting to note that the ration packs I ever had all had date of manufacture but no expiry date! (at least that's what we were told the date was!)

Just because it says 'use by' or 'best before' doesn't mean that it will instantly go bad as the clock turns midnight on that date! Use your eyes and nose to decide if stuff is bad!

beverick

The wife threw away a yoghurt a couple of weeks ago because it was one day over its best before date. She said "it would have been full of bacteria".

I lost the will to live shortly afterwards......

Bob

Ben6899

beverick wrote:

The wife threw away a yoghurt a couple of weeks ago because it was one day over its best before date. She said "it would have been full of bacteria".

I lost the will to live shortly afterwards......

Bob

Ye, but good or bad bacteria!? Eh? Eh?

neilo23

They found honey in the pyramids and by tasting it found that it was still good after a couple of thousand years. Apparently the week old jar of honey in my cupboard will go off in March 2013.

Aggieboy

neilo23 wrote:

They found honey in the pyramids and by tasting it found that it was still good after a couple of thousand years. Apparently the week old jar of honey in my cupboard will go off in March 2013.

I've got a honey in my basement. Should be OK for a couple of years yet.

MountainMonster

Nick@D wrote:

Hi All,

FYI, i contacted Torq referance to purchase life on there products & an Anthony Roland responded very quickly & helpfully with the details below

Hi Nick
As a good guide go for:
2 years on the TORQ Gels and Energy drinks.
1 1/2 years on the TORQ Recovery drink
1 year on the TORQ Bars
Hope that helps!
Regards,
Anthony

have had no respond from wiggle as yet. i will keep you posted.

that is a interesting comment ZingZang with regards to the other bars from wiggle, is the norm & people roll over??

Hi Yossie, you are probably right with the 500 boxes in the warehouse, however i would expect better stock management, or a least notification before purchase on the limited shelf life. with the referance to the water & the sell by date, your right the water does not go off but the container eg: plastic bottle, goes past it's date & starts to "breakdown" thus contaminating the water inside, that is why there is one on water.

Cheers

Nick D

Do you really need people to inform you of use by dates on everything?